1. TREASURY: Janice Kaye (unable to attend) sent a treasury report – there is $5613.72 in the WGPO account.

2. WEBSITE: Steve and Ruth provided an update on the status of the WGPO website. The switch was successfully made to a new server which now provides 24/7 service. Ruth will act as the funnel for postings on website (tasks to be transitioned from Henry Yeung and Rick Wong). Aaron Daly is working on a website design update. Steve Pellinen will join the tech committee.

3. RATINGS: Dominick finished the ratings using existing code, and arrived at a working process for rating tournaments. Dominick is working toward switching the ratings to Java. Wish list: Listing states next to names, projected number of wins, ideas for changing tournament results for consistent reporting. Dominick would be willing to maintain all of the data associated with WGPO membership and ratings; will follow up with Henry Yeung about web permissions.

4. WORD CUP 2014 STATUS REPORT: the 2014 Word Cup will be held in Madison, Wisconsin, August 1-6 (4 divisions, open format) directed by Lynda Finn and Bennett Jacobstein. So far there are 78 entrants, several already paid. An early bird will be directed by Larry if there is enough interest. Lynda and Bennett are working on detailed planning, and will make decisions regarding cut offs for divisions, distribution of prize money, integration of Collins; will welcome input from EC and BPR

5. ELECTION PROCESS (Ruth & Joe): Discussed ways to increase participation in voting. Joe offered possible options: Do a multiple choice survey asking why people did / did not vote; consider taking votes by email (Ruth reviewed the by laws which do not prohibit this). Dominick commented that we could set up an email group address for the survey if we decide to do one. The EC and BPR will recruit future nomination and elections committee volunteers.

6. ADD MEMBERS FOR LISTSERV: For this Phoenix tournament, Larry added instructions for joining the listserv. Dominick will review the membership document started by Melissa (dated June 2013) to see if it would be useful for tracking listserv participation.

7. DOCUMENTING POLICIES.

a. EC and BPR members agreed we should have a codification of all WGPO policies that have been decided to date. Steph volunteered to compile existing policies, using past minutes as a starting point.

b. Agreement by all that there is a need for instituting a process for revisiting policies.

8. TWL3/OSPD5. General discussion of the availability of the anticipated new dictionary to WGPO members.

9. NUMBER OF TOURNAMENTS: Bennett spoke about MSI (Mind Sports International), which is sponsoring festivals of mind games like chess, with tournaments in LA, Berkeley and Las Vegas planned, and the potential impact on WGPO tournaments.

In December, members elected Larry Rand to the Executive Committee and re-elected Stephanie Steele. Steve Pellinen and Susi Tiekert were re-elected to the Board of Player Representatives and were joined by Ruth Hamilton and Rick Wong. These terms began in January. Keith Hagel continues to serve on the Executive Committee and Bennett Jacobstein is a continuing member of the Board of Player Representatives.

Voting is now open for the Word Game Players’ Organization election of members to its Executive Committee (EC) and Board of Player Representatives (BPR). Members will elect two candidate to serve on the EC, and four to serve on the BPR.

Voting is limited to WGPO members; anyone who joined on or before November 30, 2013 is eligible to participate. To vote:

2. If prompted to log in, enter your username and password. (Note: If you have forgotten your username, feel free to contact Melissa Brown, WGPO Member Liaison, molly1904@gmail.com . If you have forgotten your password, as long as you have the correct username, you can reset your password by following the prompts under the “membership” tab).

3. Select the WGPO December 2013 Election topic. Candidates’ campaign statements, if provided, can be found there, as well as the ballots. There are two candidates for the two open seats on the Executive Committee: Stephanie Steele and Larry Rand. There are five candidates for four open seats on the Board of Player Representative: Rick Wong, Steve Pellinen, Susi Tiekert, Mike Johnson, and Ruth Hamilton.

Members will be able to vote for two candidates for the EC and up to four for the BPR. No member may vote more than once for any individual candidate, and no votes may be changed once they are submitted

Voting will conclude on December 14, 2013, at 11:59 PM PST, and results will be published within 72 hours.

The election is being administered by the WGPO Nominations and Elections Committee, whose members are Sue Hoehn, Fran Galt and Joe Gaspard. The committee shall be the arbiter of any disputes. Concerns or questions should be addressed to Joe at joegaspard@aol.com. Technical questions or problems should be addressed to Henry Yeung at hyeung@wordgameplayers.org.

While this election primarily will be conducted online, the WGPO will try to assist members who wish to vote by mail. Mail-in ballots (with your name, contact information and the names of the candidates for whom you are voting) may be sent to Sue Hoehn, 2184 Scheffer Ave, St Paul MN 55116. They must be received by December 14, 2013.

WGPO WEB SITE – Dominick will work with Brian Galebach and Henry Yeung, to improve the website. The first step will be to implement source control to share control among developers. Additional goals are to implement use of standard HTML instead of Google docs, better data reporting on tournaments, administrative permissions for club directors so they can clean up content, make the discussion forum a part of the website, better navigation overall, more user friendly. Keith asked if there is a sense of timetable. Per Dominick, Larry will communicate with Brian and the tech committee regarding moving forward.

WORD JUDGE USA – Maliha has developed a word list that contains words of 2-21 letters for use in Super Scrabble (Zyzzyva includes up to 15 letter words). Steve asked about sources for words. Sources are Zyzzyva, The Long Words list and Google for the very long words. Maliha started this list in 2008 for a word building game she invented. Hard copy will be available from Amazon and free copy available online from wordjudgeusa.com. The EC and BPR will discuss further whether to endorse this list for Super Scrabble.

WORD CUP 2014 – Lynda Finn – Lynda has signed a contract with Madison Marriott West. $175 a day for playing room, approx twice the size of the room here in Denver. $1200 minimum food reception. There is a commitment for 125 total room nights. There is free wifi in public areas of hotel, including playing room. Travel options were discussed (fly to Madison, fly to Chicago or Milwaukee and bus or drive to Madison). Probable $50 commuter fee will be charged. The hotel is in walking distance to several restaurants and a mall. $99 a night room rate. EC and BPR will meet again on Tuesday at lunch time to discuss the agenda items: Reciprocity, Suspended players in other organizations, Word judge, Madison and any items which may arise at the Monday evening player meeting.

The meeting will be continued on August 6 at 1PM, with remaining agenda items and discussion of any issues brought up at the general membership meeting.

August 5, 2013

Aurora, CO

General Meeting of WGPO

Larry Rand called the meeting to order @ 8:35 pm. Approximately 60 people attended

No formal agenda

Open up for questions about the organization

Mike Johnson, Decorah, Iowa, had a question regarding provisional ratings which are higher than anticipated for new players. The issue needs to be addressed by the ratings committee. Rick will handle and respond with answer to the rest of us by email.

Winter would like to see more Collins in WGPO. Stephanie gave history of interactions with WESPA. WESPA will not rate Collins tournaments in WGPO. The issue is that people do not want to learn Collins. Winter stated that the leadership of WGPO should promote Collins by adding the 2 and 3 letter word list to WGPO. Larry brought up the issue of word judging without software. Steve is willing to have Collins division at the Wisconsin Dells tournament. Stephanie suggests that a Collins player should hold a tournament and assume leadership in the Collins world. Maybe start with an Intro to Collins weekend (Angela).

Mark Pistolese asked about how WGPO will handle the expulsion of a NASPA player – the committee will set a standard. Anne McCarthy suggested that roles and responsibilities be defined for directors.

Announcement of the 2014 Word Cup in Madison, Wisconsin to be directed by Lynda Finn. The tournament will be held at a Marriott with reasonable room rates. Dates are August 2-6, 2014. Looking at having 8 games a day. All events will be WGPO rated. Optional pre-event fun on Friday, August 1, as an alternative to an Early Bird. Several people have offered to direct an early bird as Lynda does not wish to do this. The event is a week before the event in Buffalo.

Mike Johnson gave a big thank you to the directors and the players of the WGPO Word Cup.

TREASURER’S REPORT (Janice) – $1953 is in the bank, this does not count the donations received here. Larry stated that we need to do a better job of asking directors to solicit donations to WGPO at tournaments. Suggestion of using part of the recent private $2000 donation (received at the tournament) to pay Word Cup expenses so we can have 100% payback. Keith made a motion the raise the prize fund to 100% for 2013 Word Cup. The motion failed for lack of a second. The intent is to donate $1500 to 2014 WC in Madison, as has been the practice for other Word Cups.

SEATS UP FOR ELECTION, 2013 – The 3 year terms are up for Steve, Susi, Sue, Rick, and Steph at end of 2013. Larry, Bennett and Keith are clear. Per bylaws a nominating committee needs to be appointed by October 20. Steph and Susi will probably run, Steve said maybe, Rick will consider BPR rather than EC, Sue will not run.

WORD JUDGE USA – Rick stated that the next step should be for Rick to confirm that words from 2-15 are valid in Maliha’s publication. He is able to do that. Steph moved that assuming the book Meliha has written compares exactly to Zyzzyva, it be approved as an official word source for WGPO player. Seconded by Larry and Susi. Rick suggested adding to the motion that WGPO would recognize Word Judge USA as an official source for Scrabble play as well as Super Scrabble. Motion voted on and carried

Larry will contact Brian about the provisional ratings question brought up at the general meeting.

WEB SITE ISSUES – Steve mentioned that a new host for the web server is needed. A chairperson is needed for the tech committee. Rick will approach Henry to see if he wants to chair the tech committee and will give a response 7 to 10 days after the minutes come out.

2015 WORD CUP: There was discussion of the 2015 WC and possible sites. BPR and EC are putting out a request for WGPO members to suggest sites for the 2015 WC.

WEB SITE ISSUES – There is an urgent need for changing the web host server with support. Rick knows of some possibilities and will do due diligence. Keith moved to have the server moved upon due diligence and selection. The board unanimously approved.

FUTURE WORD CUPS – Possible modification of the bylaws regarding involvement of the EC and BPR in decisions regarding Word Cup format, etc. Keith asked all to look at the by laws. Steve and Bennett have volunteered to be on Lynda’s committee for WC 2014.

RECIPROCITY – Allowing flyers for other tournaments at WGPO. Many tournaments of the other organization do not advertise WGPO. Board unanimously agreed we will allow reciprocity at WGPO tournaments.

SUSPENSION OF PLAYERS BY OTHER ORGANIZATIONS – Rick will research previous discussion of this matter. Believes the agreement was that we would honor the other organization’s suspension but allow appeal on case by case basis.

MERCHANDISING – Rick suggests setting up a Cafe Press or similar account for production of TShirts, Coffee Mugs, etc. Susi will research the one with the best return.

ANAGRAMMER ON WEBSITE – Rick stated that Kenji mentioned that one of the most searched scrabble terms in the Internet is “Scrabble Cheat”, a popular website. Some type of anagrammer or word finder like that on our website could attract traffic.

1. WEB SITE: All attendees agreed that there is a need to update the website content. Steve has spoken with Aaron Daly whose current company is our web host and will continue going forward. Aaron has indicated that he would be interested in taking on responsibility for possibly redesigning the website and updating the content. Rick gave insights on the Word Press framework now used for content management on the WGPO site. Larry is willing to get training on web updates using Word Press, and Rick is willing to train /mentor, if no other resources are identified. Larry will approach current members about possible web responsibilities, and Susi has a potential recruit. Currently the following people are authorized to update the website: Steph Steele, Keith Hagel, Dave Wood for tournament information, and Brian Galebach for ratings. Wish list: number of tournaments played per individual, ability to sort by state / province and alphabetically.

2. WORD CUP 2014. Several cities in the West and Midwest are under consideration as the possible site for WC 2014. Ideally, a location will be selected in time to announce at WC 2013 this August. As a reference, August 9 -13, 2014 are the dates of NASPA Buffalo nationals. Two weeks before would be considered for WC 2014.

3. IDEAS: Bennett mentioned an idea for a WGPO Tour to encourage tournament participation, and then he moved to table the idea until further information is gathered. Bennett proposed another idea, a Baseball Lovers 15 game Scrabble Tournament and Road Trip. Attendees acknowledged that word game players also tend to be baseball fans, and agreed that this idea should be investigated for 2014, both during Spring Training and regular season.

4. RULES: There was limited discussion about tournament rules; Rick pointed out that the LPGA does not have its own rules for golf — they use both the US and the UK rules depending on where they play. This is an example of a group that uses other groups’ rules. More discussion to be held on this topic.

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